Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Measurement from Python V

• Published in: The Astrophysical Journal
• Main Authors: Coble, K., Dodelson, S., Dragovan, M., Ganga, K., Knox, L., Kovac, J., Ratra, B., Souradeep, T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Astronomical Society 2003
• Subjects: cosmic microwave background; cosmology: observations; Amundsen Scott South Pole Station; Amundsen-Scott; Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station; Cara; South Pole; Antarc*; Antarctica; South pole
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1086/345714

We analyze observations of the microwave sky made with the Python experiment in its fifth year of operation at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. After modeling the noise and constructing a map, we extract the cosmic signal from the data. We simultaneously estimate the angular power spectrum in eight bands ranging from large (ℓ ~ 40) to small (ℓ ~ 260) angular scales, with power detected in the first six bands. There is a significant rise in the power spectrum from large to smaller (ℓ ~ 200) scales, consistent with that expected from acoustic oscillations in the early universe. We compare this Python V map to a map made from data taken in the third year of Python. Python III observations were made at a frequency of 90 GHz and covered a subset of the region of the sky covered by Python V observations, which were made at 40 GHz. Good agreement is obtained both visually (with a filtered version of the map) and via a likelihood ratio test. © 2003. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2001 December 20; accepted 2002 October 22. This work was supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, PYI grant NSF AST 90-57089, and the NSF under a cooperative agreement with the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA), grant NSF OPP 89-20223. CARA is an NSF Science and Technology Center. K. C. is supported by NSF grant AST 01-04465. The work of S. D. was supported by the DOE and by NASA grant NAG 5-10842 at Fermilab and by NSF grant PHY-0079251 at Chicago. B. R. and T. S. acknowledge support from NSF CAREER grant AST 98-75031. Published - pdf Submitted - 0112506.pdf